


The Venom of the Snake

by AgataVarano



Series: Scar [9]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Abusive Parents, Attempted Murder, Character Death, Choking, Domestic Violence, Gen, Guns, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Implied/Referenced Torture, Siblings, Stop hurting my babies goddamn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:14:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26084008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgataVarano/pseuds/AgataVarano
Summary: Okay, not every relative is the absolute worse, but those who are in fact bad are the devil incarnated.
Relationships: Original Female Character & Original Female Character, Original Female Character & Original Male Character, Original Male Character & Original Male Character
Series: Scar [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1826437





	The Venom of the Snake

**Author's Note:**

> • English is not my first language, so I'm sorry if there are any mistakes.  
> • You can find this and more fics on my Tumblr @/let-me-write-my-life and my Instagram @/agata_varano.

_ You're like a parasite, infecting me until the end. - Lacuna Coil (Veneficium) _

It's almost ironic how on this specific day the sun chose to shine the brightest, the clouds to disappear showing the clearest sky ever seen in months, the breeze to be calm and fresh. It's almost ironic how this specific summer day has the best weather in a long time, as to celebrate Jonathan's first mission with his sister. 

It's almost ironic because now Lara can't hold back the tears and the whines and no amount of fresh air could ever console her. She covers her mouth with a hand as her vision is blurred by her watery eyes, a whine full of sorrow escaping her lips.

Jonathan turns to her for a moment, then throws a deadly glance at the agent in front of them. The source of his sister's pain. He steps towards her, but she moves back and runs out of the room.  _ "F*ck" _

He looks at Natasha and she nods, inching closer to the agent and leading him out of the room as Jonathan runs after Lara. When he finds her, she's sitting against a wall, her head on her knees. He kneels beside her and moves a shy hand to her back. "Lara..."

She quickly catches his hand, squeezing it and twisting his wrist. "You knew," she growls, tears still streaming down her cheeks.

He swallows. Yes, yes, he knew. He knew her parents (even though he didn't know they were her parents) had been killed by a guy called Frank Linch, he knew her mother had ordered that murder. "Yes," he whispers, his gaze falling on the floor.

Lara clenches her teeth and pushes him away, hard enough to make him fall. She jumps up and steps back, rage written on her face. "I'll kill them," she mumbles to herself before rushing to the door.

Jonathan runs after her and stops her, pulling her arm and forcing her to face him. "I won't let you kill my father," he says, wrapping his fingers tighter around her forearm.

She jerks his grip away and inches back, clenching her fists. A feeling of betrayal is raising inside of her. "They killed my family!" She screams. "It's because of them if-"

"And you want to avenge a family with another family?" Jonathan tries to get closer to Lara, but she steps back to keep him distant. The infuriated look on her face is way too similar to his mother's for Jonathan to think clearly. "You said people working for the Agency do crazy things out of despair. Maybe there was a reason for it too, maybe-"

"Stop," she responds, "stop humanising those monsters."

Now Jonathan can't control himself anymore. He can't even recognize the woman he's got to know for the past months in the furious creature in front of him. "Those monsters are my parents!" He clenches his fists and tries to cool down. "And if you weren't so self-centered you would understand it."

Now it's Lara who can't control herself. All the anger disappears from her face, leaving only a cold, much more lethal fury hidden in her eyes. "I'm sorry?" She asks, slightly tilting her head to the side.

Jonathan swallows and moves closer to her. "You heard me. You're not the only one with problems, you're not the only one who suffers." His tone turns ice cold. "Stop acting like your past is an excuse for everything you do."

Lara breathes out a sarcastic laugh and looks down for a second, before bringing her gaze back to her brother, newfound anger in it. "And you stop acting like blood ties are a synonym for innocence."

"I'm perfectly aware of that," he answers back, "because now you are in no way sane." She is about to say something, but he interrupts her. "I thought you were different, but I was wrong. You are just like your mother."

She jumps forward and screams. "She is not my mother!"

Jonathan looks down at her, his eyes full of pity for a sister he now feels like he's never met before. "Go ahead, if you want to, but don't count on my help."

"Fair enough. It was nice to meet you." Lara throws him a last glance before turning her back to him and storming out of the room.

She's still on the doorstep when he calls her. "Lara." She doesn't turn, she just stops, her eyes still set forward. He lets out a breath, hundreds of thoughts forming in his brain and thousands of words he'd like to tell her coming to his mind. " _ I'm sorry." "Please don't leave." "You're right." "I care about you." "You'll always be my sister." "Thank you for everything." "We can still sort it out." "It doesn't have to end this way." "I don't want it to end this way. Please." _ But he doesn't say none of these. "It was nice to meet you too."

The asphalt is burning hot, heated up by the midday sun. The fresh breeze stops right as Jonathan storms out of the Agency X base, carefully avoiding everyone he meets on his way out. Then he starts walking. He has no precise direction, he just needs to walk, walk and clear his mind. He stops in front of a tiny bar in the corner of the street and enters. There's no one in sight but the barman, cleaning a glass, and an old man sitting at a table against the wall and reading his newspaper.

Jonathan orders a beer and sits at a table near the window, where he's sure he can see everything going on outside. Not that there's much to see: the town of Hempstead looks like a ghost city, with no cars in the streets and no pedestrians on the sidewalks. He takes a sip of beer, his gaze inspecting the shops on the other side of the road. Another sip, bigger than the previous one, and Jonathan feels strangely tired, his vision darkening. One last sip of beer down his throat and he falls down. The last thing he sees is the door opening and a dark haired woman crouching in front of him.

His head is exploding, twisting, his throat is completely dried and even aches a little. And he doesn't want to open his eyes because he perfectly knows what is waiting for him. Then a slap to his face and he forces his eyes open, just to meet the imagined sight of his mother. He lets out a breath, finally acknowledging that his wrists are chained to the chair he's sitting on, as well as his ankles. Slightly turning his head, he can see his father crossing his arms and looking down, as to pretend what is happening before his eyes is not real. As always.

"You disappointed me. You always have, in some way. When you cried, when you were afraid, when you refused to finish what you'd started," Sandra begins and she leans closer to his face, her dark hair framing her green eyes. "But this… this is worse. This is  _ betrayal _ ."

She takes a step back and Jonathan notices her gun placed in the holster on her side. He swallows and looks back at her face. "Where did I go wrong with you?" She asks, a disgusted grimace on her lips. "I did everything,  _ everything _ to make you stronger, braver, better. Yet I failed, it seems."

He shakes his head. "I-"

"I should've understood you were weaker than my expectations when you started 'protecting' that coward of your father instead of leaving him to face his destiny," she interrupts him. So she knew. She always knows everything, it seems. "You proved your weakness when you hid for three weeks just to grieve a girl who had been killed and that you claimed to love." She stops, enjoying the painful memories she has brought back to her son's mind, then she throws daggers at him with her eyes. "When you chose some heartbreaking story over me."

Jonathan looks down. He doesn't even want to imagine what will happen to him. He closes his eyes for a second and takes a deep breath.

"But I forgive you." Jonathan looks up incredulous, his eyes wide open. It can't be true. Then Sandra smirks and, with her following words, she confirms the cold reality of her actions. "Someone will have to witness me killing our new prisoner."

Jonathan caresses his wrists where the chains used to be. His gaze darts across the room, finally setting on the one-way mirror and the bright room on the other side. His father places a hand on his shoulder and looks down at him. "I'm sorry for Sandra's 'methods'," he says. Jonathan doesn't do nor say anything, he just looks forward. No, he's not. If he were, he would have done something. But he didn't do anything. He has never done anything.

Then the door opens and Sandra, who was sitting at a table in the other room, gets up. Two agents enter, dragging with them the person Jonathan needed to see.

It's in that moment that Jonathan realizes the prisoner his mother was talking about is not a common prisoner. The woman thrown on the floor, blood dripping down her nose and mouth, her lips bigger because of the punches and her wrists hurt by the tight tape around them, is his very sister. But his eyes open wide when he notices the thin collar around her neck, its red light beeping to a regular pace. 

That device is no novelty to Jonathan. He perfectly remembers his mother using it on him when he was a child, blocking his powers and torturing him with low power discharges or, as she used to say, training his resistance to pain. But now, that same collar is around Lara's neck and, according to the light on its side, it's already working.

A smug grin forms on Sandra's lips as she steps forward, the barrel of her gun bunching against her thigh. "I'm glad I finally get to meet you, Johnson."

With an inhuman effort, Lara gets up on her elbows and looks up, perfectly aware who the woman before her eyes is. She isn't quite sure if the pleasure is reciprocated or not.

Sandra gestures the two agents to pick Lara up from the ground and steps forward, her green eyes locked on her face. "Quite easy to kidnap you, don't you think?"

But Lara doesn't flinch. Instead, she clenches her fists and digs her nails deep into her palms. "You can immediately kill me. I have nothing to tell you."

The other woman smirks and crosses her arms. "May I be damned for underestimating your worth the day you were born." She inches closer and Lara has to fight the urge to spit in her face, but she chooses to bite her inner cheek. The grin on Sandra's face becomes bigger. "Who knew you just needed a few strangulations to prove your strength?"

She knew, she goddamn knew  _ everything _ . Lara has no idea for how long Sandra has been spying her, but it must be a lot of time for her to know about  _ him _ . She tries to kick her and jerk the two agents' grip away, but all her fighting is vain.

Sandra takes her gun out of her pocket and aims at her forehead. Lara swallows heavily, even though the tight collar choking her makes it harder. "Which family will you join, my daughter?"

In that exact moment, as soon as those words reach her ear, Lara clenches her fists harder. Her heart is racing in her chest, but she's absolutely calm. If this is how it has to end, so be it. She looks at Sandra right in the eye and leans forward until she feels the cold metal of the gun barrel on her skin. 

For the first time in years, she feels powerless. She doesn't feel her magic inside of herself anymore, that devilish device around her neck blocking it. Yet she's calm, she's perfectly calm, and the more she looks inside of the other's eyes, the more her heartbeat slows down.

For a moment she searches in her eyes for a trace of humanity, something to cling onto, but she finds nothing. She doesn't want to be like that. "Thank you," she says, her voice low and barely audible, "thank you for abandoning me." She takes a deep breath, the barrel of the gun still pressed against her forehead.  _ "That's it, this is everything I had to tell you." _ It doesn't have to end this way.

She kicks her away and elbows the two agents. Sandra shoots at her, but she bends down and the bullet sticks into the concrete wall behind her. She punches an agent, then wraps her arms around the other's neck and violently pulls him closer to break the tape around her wrists. She elbows one of the agents and kicks the other on the ground. She punches him and then avoids the sliver of ice Sandra throws at her for a few inches. With a quick glance, she checks on her side. The spike cut her shirt, but barely touched her body. She avoids another hit from Sandra, then attacks her over and over, punch after punch, kick after kick, ignoring the pain around her neck.

Surprisingly Sandra falls on the ground and Lara takes advantage of it to pick up her gun and point it to her head. She looks at her right in the eye and, in that exact moment, she feels uncomfortable with a weapon for the first time. She has never had, not in the last ten years. Yet here she is, putting all her effort into not letting her arm shake as she points a gun at her mother's head. Because she has changed, because she is not the same woman who killed for money without a second thought. She's not like her mother.

Sandra sees her internal conflict and smirks. "Go ahead, kill me," she says. "Get your dear, bloodstained revenge." No reaction. "Your parents would be proud of you."

Lara clenches her jaw and she fights, she fights so hard not to show any emotion, to go back to the heartless monster she once was proud to be. But she can't. And a tear streams down her cheek. "I am not like you," she mumbles, trying to steady her voice.

The other woman breathes out a laugh. "You're right..." 

And she presses a button on her watch. And Lara stops breathing, the grip around her neck becoming so tight she falls on the ground. She coughs, clutching her throat in a desperate attempt to remove the collar, while Sandra slowly gets up and then kneels in front of her. She stares at her with a satisfied expression as Lara's lips turn blue. The woman smiles. "You are weaker."

Lara can only watch as she leaves the room, her vision blurring and turning darker. Apparently it has to end this way.

And then air. Air filling her lungs. She doesn't even think about it and takes a deep breath and then another, feeling the grip around her throat loosening. She clutches her neck and her hand meets another one, carefully removing her collar. She throws a quick glance to her side, but when she notices who has saved her she lets out a breath.

"Thank you," she murmurs, moving her gaze to the door and delicately massaging her throat. Air entering her body has never felt so good.

"I'm sorry," Jonathan whispers as he moves the device in his hands. It must have been updated: it didn't have a choking option when he was a child. After a moment of silence, he looks at her, slowly sitting up in front of him. "You were right, not everyone deserves a second chance. They don't."

Lara turns to him slowly, but doesn't look him in the face. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to."

He shakes his head and moves a stroke of hair away from her face. "But I want to. I have to. It's  _ my _ second chance." He laughs. "I can't leave the brunette who head-butted me alone."

A genuine smile forms on her lips before he wraps his arms around her and pulls her into a tight hug. She hugs him back and lets out a breath. Finally.

"Are you sure this corridor leads out of here?" Lara whispers to Jonathan as he drags her down yet another staircase, this one even darker than the previous one. She stops in front of a metal door, fighting his grip around her wrist. "And you can let me go, I know how to walk."

"Yeah, sorry," he says before freeing her and turning to face her. "And unless they've modified its planimetry, I know this building like my own pockets."

Lara arches a brow as he turns back to the door and inserts a password on the little display next to it. "If you say so," she comments, not convinced. 

Her words are then followed by a weak beep and the door unlocking. The two step through the door but, as soon as they enter the adjoining room, it closes behind them. Lara looks at the door worried, while Jonathan brings an hand to his face and mumbles a low "f*ck" to himself.

"If you were trying to exasperate me, you succeeded." The two turn to see Sandra standing with her arms crossed on the other side of the room, Abraham a few steps behind her, his classic expression of resignation written on his face. Sandra moves a few feet forward, her footsteps being the only sound in the room, then suddenly opens her arms and Lara and Jonathan are thrown against a wall.

The woman rushes forward, but her attack is promptly stopped by Lara, protecting both her and her brother by controlling the air. She then pushes her mother away and Jonathan throws a ball of energy at her. Sandra stops it effortlessly and uses it as a weapon against Lara, making her fall through the floor, then almost impales Jonathan. Hit after hit, he's on the ground and Lara, who managed to fly back into the room, has been pushed against a wall and immobilized with ice.

Sandra stares at her children, a hint of disappointment on her face, and inches closer to Jonathan as an orange aura forms around her fingers. She can already feel the smell of burnt meat in her nostrils. She loads her attack, ready to fire and…

"Stop!"

And she stops. She turns, grinning at the very well-known voice, and her eyes set on her husband, shyly stepping towards her.

He swallows heavily, appealing to his own courage, and throws a quick glance to his son.  _ "I'm sorry for being this late." _ "What you're doing is madness," he says. He shakes his head, choosing to ignore her grin. "You- you weren't always like this."

She lowers her hand and tilts her head slightly to the side. "It's all your fault and you know it. You let me be this."

He swallows again, even more heavily than before, but doesn't stop looking at her in the eyes. "Sandra, I- Sandra, sweetheart, I know you're more than this." She laughs, but he ignores it too. "And you're right, it's my fault. It's my fault if you joined first the Agency and then those projects with Substance Y. But it's not theirs," he says, pointing at Jonathan and then at Lara.

Sandra stares at him with a new expression and, for a second, she seems to understand. But then, the Substance takes over her mind again and she begins laughing.

But Abraham doesn't flinch. He steps closer to her, close enough that she can hear his heart racing in his chest. "Just let me help you," he pleads.

She stares at him dead in the eyes. "I don't need your help." She attacks him, but he's fast to parry her magic.

"I've never complained for what you did to me in all these years because I felt like I deserved it," he says. "But they don't." He lets out a breath and focuses his gaze on Jonathan and Lara. After a moment he looks back at Sandra. "If someone here has to pay, it's me."

And for a second he sees it, he sees the real Sandra trapped in those green eyes, choked by alien substances and cosmic powers. But it doesn't last. Because not everyone can be saved. 

She smirks and does a step forward. "You want to pay for your sins?" Another step and she stretches her arm forward. "As you wish." 

A scream leaves Abraham's mouth as his wife's magic tightens around his chest, a tremendous pain taking over him. He can only stare at her with his eyes wide open when, one second later, his heart is ripped from his chest and flies into her hand. He falls forward, trying to hold onto her for stability, but she steps back with a disgusted grimace and he falls on the floor, one last breath escaping his lips as a drop of blood, his blood, falls on his head.

Bending her arm to bring her sweet treasure closer to her face, Sandra digs her nail deep into her husband's heart, blood trailing down her fingers and forearm. Her previous expressions leaves room to a smug grin, one of those grins able to make your blood run cold. One of those grins no one would ever wish to see on their mother's face.

Sandra then slowly turns to face her son, who's still laying not far from her. His screams went unnoticed by her, too focused on her crime, but now she can take pleasure in the tears coming to his eyes. She drops what she was holding, careful to make the organ fall right in front of Jonathan's face and glad to see a few drops of blood splashing on his face as he gets up on his elbows. 

He swallows heavily and hopes, he hopes with all his heart to find the strength not to cry. He doesn't want to pleasure the monster before him. He just wants to kill her. With this wish, he suddenly jumps up and stretches his arm to impale her, but the sliver of iron is stopped with an air shield and Jonathan is thrown on the other side of the room.

At this point Lara jumps up as well, trying to slit Sandra's throat with ice, but the same ice is thrown back at her and she just avoids being impaled by her own spell. Jonathan attacks her from behind, taking advantage of her distraction, and making the ground under her feet crumble. Sandra falls down and Lara promptly turns a portion of her blood into acid. But she doesn't flinch. She pushes her daughter to the side, almost succeeding at burning down her face. Before she can even stand tall properly, Jonathan uses the rage inside of him to slowly, oh so slowly, melt down her hand. This time Sandra emits a high pitched scream as her flesh fuses as it was metal. With one last but successful move, she throws both her rebellious children against a wall with such violence that they break the concrete with their backs. Then she runs away, taking advantage of her opponents being momentarily knocked out.

Lara gets up and is about to run after Sandra, but she stops when she notices Jonathan falling on his knees before his father's dead body. She swallows heavily and gets closer to him, finally kneeling by his side. "I'm sorry," she whispers, perfectly aware it won't help him feel better. But at least she'll let him know she's there.

He doesn't move his gaze from the corpse, tears slowly running down his cheeks. "He has never been the best and… and I've hated him." He takes a breath and closes his eyes for a moment. "But he didn't deserve this." 

Lara nods and stares at the floor, searching with her eyes for the same exact spot her brother is looking at, before he throws himself into her arms. She wraps her arms around him and caresses his hair as he buries his face in her neck, silently crying against her skin. The air is heavy with the smell of blood and Lara has to force herself not to make a face against Jonathan's skin.

She stares blankly at the door, hoping her repetitive messages can soothe his grief. She understands what he's feeling, she really does, and at the time she would have killed to have the strength necessary to hide against someone's body and cry, cry until her eyes were dried. She just lets out a breath and hides her nose in his hair. "It's going to be okay, I promise."


End file.
